ID Biomedical has been awarded up to US $5.6 million by the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), part of the US National Institutes of Health (NIH), to develop a nasally administered sub-unit vaccine to protect against Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS).

The primary aim of the work will be to test various formulations of vaccine candidates based on ID Biomedical's proprietary Proteosome mucosal adjuvant/deliver technology.

The award, granted under the NIAID Challenge Grants Initiative for Biodefense and SARS Product Development, will be used to evaluate Proteosome-based formulations with a purified recombinant form of the 'spike' or S-protein found on the surface of the human coronavirus now known to cause SARS. Several research groups have shown that antibodies directed against the S-protein are able to neutralize the virus and prevent it from infecting cells in tissue culture and causing disease in preclinical models.

Commenting on the award, ID Biomedical's Vice President of Research, Dr. David Burt said, "This award will give us the opportunity to apply our Proteosome-based adjuvant technology to the important problem of SARS. There are many similarities between SARS and influenza and we have successfully applied the Proteosome technology in the development of an intra-nasal flu vaccine in both human challenge and field studies."

He continued, "Consequently, it makes good sense to apply the use of our proprietary platform technology in this regard as well. SARS, like influenza, is caused by a respiratory virus and so vaccination by the mucosal route could be an effective way to control the spread of the disease in humans. In preclinical studies, we have demonstrated that a nasally administered prototype Proteosome-SARS vaccine stimulated immune responses on the surface of the lungs and also in the bloodstream. Those immune responses were directed against the S-protein of the human coronavirus. The NIH grant will enable IDB to optimize the vaccine formulation and to extend our studies into preclinical protection models and human clinical trials."

ID Biomedical is an integrated biotechnology company dedicated to the development of innovative vaccine products. It operates in research, development, manufacturing, sales and marketing from its facilities in Canada and in the United States.